wow...nppl is boring...

They both have pros and cons, but i would probably like xball a lot more than i do now if it didn't have coaching. aslo, while watching 7man play on camera varies in entertainment from game to game, nothing is like being at the event.

just because the games arent close to 5 or 6 minutes long doesnt make it not exciting. its more exciting when people are constantly moving and people have to react quicker to the other team. it also takes a lot more endurance to play an xball match, cause you dont have 30 minutes in between games

They have to react quicker? They have freaking coaches on the sideline telling them where players are at, where they should move up to, and IMO that's just a horrible idea.

X-Ball is more running chaos, you have one All star player, that makes it to a 50, and the other team is toast...and yes I have played X-Ball before.

7-Man, is definetely strategic, you make one dumb move, your done. You have one player down, you can still do good.

Seriously, I want to know how many of you have actually played both formats in the national tournament setting... I think a lot of you have these misconceptions of a format you've never even played.

If you ask me, Xball is much more of a thinking man's game. You have to play that team, at a bare minimum, 5 times in D3 and 7 times in D2/D1. Most games aren't blow-outs though, so you'll usually play each team a good 7-10 times per match. That means you need to go out there, win a point, come back out and try to win another point after the other team seeing exactly how you put together your game plan just two minutes prior. So, unless you are really just leaps and bounds better than the other teams in your division, you have to be able to make play choices that will keep it varried enough that the other team won't be able to know exactly where you're going every point. We've taken advatange of teams who haven't done this in the past. By all means, some of them may have had better gun skills, but they always did the same thing. By the 3rd point, we knew exactly where each guy was going to go off the break and where everyone was going to look once they got to their bunkers. We switch a few guys' guns and send someone to a different bunker and completely destroy them the next 6-7 points...

Good teams, however, will lose a point and then completely dissect your plays. If you sent a guy hard snake side when you won, you better believe they're going to have two guns on that snake... Or will they? Maybe they are expecting you to push the D side hard since you just pushed snake the last point, so they're going to put two guns D-side? Or maybe they noticed your laners shot from the center towards the outsides, so they're going to send someone X to get all your shooters stuck in the center and try and hit a guy running out wide... You have to take all that into consideration in the next minute and a half or so while you're loading your pods, getting air and cleaning off hits, and then come up with a play you think will work against how this team has been playing you.

7-man you just kind of flip a coin on how you think they'll breakout and hope for the best. Once you get into finals and the best of 3 format kicks in you get some of that game play thinking going on, but for the most part if you send a guy snake OTB against a team and make it, and then win the game you beat that team and move on. In Xball you have to be able to replicate that at least 7-10 times, per team. Good luck with that.

Paper/scissors/rock is never a thinking mans game; no matter how many times you play it.

I think both formats are here to stay; but in I lose respect for you if you can't respect 7-man, or the potential that x-ball has for that matter.

Those defending coaching; just make it a bit harder; move the crowd back; take it out of our sport as much as possible.

while i think the ramping thing does take something out of it....and i dont think its necessary at all (probably thought up by the paint companies...cuz last time i played an xball event we shot like 75 cases...) QUOTE]

ramping owns
everything is capped at 13 so there is more skill involved
it takes away the factor of having fast fingers and requires more skills like snap shooting and diving

I'm always amused by the people who believe things that are just plain not true.

"semi-auto" guns shoot every bit as fast as ramping guns. If you don't believe me, just ask al the players who are convinced they're shooting 18 bps in real semi, or all the players mad about 13.3 bps ramping because they think they're shooting faster than that.

Ramping guns shoot 13.3. "semi-auto" guns shoot 13.3 AND UP.

Virtually *EVERY* electronic gun on the market ramps, even in semi-auto mode. If it didn't, you wouldn't buy it because you'd think it shoots slow.

am i the only one that thinks nppl is alot harder to watch than xball? cuz of lack of excitement. hmmm 2 minutes of people shooting lanes while one guy moves, 10 minutes in bettween games, 3 more minutes of people shooting lanes, repeat forever. its cool that they're offering a webcast, but they need to spice it up a bit. of course things will probably get better once the prelims are over...just my opinion....flame away

That's not the right analogy. Chess and checkers are totally different games.

Think of it like Chess and Speed Chess.

You wouldn't say there's no strategy in speed chess, would you?

Yes, 7-man gives you a lot more time to think about what you're doing. But whether being able to make a good decision in minutes is "better" than being able to make a good decision in seconds is going to be a matter of preference. Some people will like speed chess better, some will like regular chess better, and some will like to play both.

But I think it's pretty obvious which is more fun to watch.

And get this - did you know that in Football, Basketball, Baseball, Soccer, *AND* Hockey you can see where ALL the other players are *ALL* the time? Sure isn't any strategy there is there...

I prefer play the NPPL format but I must admit watching PSP is more entertaining. The sad thing for me about the PSP format is that you see local tournament with begginers playing with ramping guns. These young player use ramping like a crutch. They never truly learn how to shoot well with both hands. I am not just talking about speed either, form goes out the window when you can lean on putting a ton of paint in the air to hold guys in. I would love to see some form of hybrid for the lower or even pro. Semi Xball would be a blast for me. Reward those that work hard to play right.

I prefer play the NPPL format but I must admit watching PSP is more entertaining. The sad thing for me about the PSP format is that you see local tournament with begginers playing with ramping guns. These young player use ramping like a crutch. They never truly learn how to shoot well with both hands. I am not just talking about speed either, form goes out the window when you can lean on putting a ton of paint in the air to hold guys in. I would love to see some form of hybrid for the lower or even pro. Semi Xball would be a blast for me. Reward those that work hard to play right.

my local series has 2 formats
d5 and d3
d5 is 5man xball but with no coaching and semi auto
d3 is similar to d3xball/d3/45man same callibar of teams too. most playing in the PSP. Coaching, 13.3bps ramping.
works out really well TPA tourneys ftw

And it blows my mind how many people in here think they know what they are talking about! lol

I prefer play the NPPL format but I must admit watching PSP is more entertaining. The sad thing for me about the PSP format is that you see local tournament with begginers playing with ramping guns. These young player use ramping like a crutch. They never truly learn how to shoot well with both hands. I am not just talking about speed either, form goes out the window when you can lean on putting a ton of paint in the air to hold guys in. I would love to see some form of hybrid for the lower or even pro. Semi Xball would be a blast for me. Reward those that work hard to play right.

^^the exact point I was trying to get at with my post.

most people work hard to train there fingers and mind to be able to hammer a trigger consistantly, then once they can, they have to switch hands and start all over. that practice to get and advantage over the player your dueling goes out the window with ramping. (I cant hammer the trigger for crap, that doesnt mean the guy that can should loose his advantage on me. ultimately he has worked hard to get that little advantage.)

cheating will be an element of any sport, harsher penalties for cheaters will help minimize it. make an example from a few cheaters who can be caught and the rest will see.

I enjoy watching both because I can understand both. The problem with viewing paintball on a monitor/tv is you can't always understand where the players are shooting so you can't really get a perfect idea of what is going on. Sure, if someone crawls down the snake, pops up and shoots some people in the back, you know what happened, but if you're sitting there watching and nobody moves and nobody dies for 30 seconds, there's really nothing to work with.